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La Paulée

By The New York Times and Eric Asimov November 28, 2006 6:14 pmNovember 28, 2006 6:14 pm

A vineyard in Meursault, France.
(Charles Bowman/Scope,for The New York Times)

MEURSAULT, France

I knew things were heading downhill when somebody opened a few bottles of Bordeaux at lunch last Monday. Nothing special – just a little Pétrus 1999, a mere baby at that. A Lynch-Bages ’85 made the rounds, and – egad! –a glass of Haut-Brion ’82 was poured for me. Didn’t matter. One taste and down the drain. This was a day for Burgundy, after all, and despite the best efforts of a claret cabal (a bunch of mischievous Brits at a nearby table) nothing was about to steal the spotlight from Burgundy.

The lunch – it was for about 700 people, give or take a few dozen – was held at the Chateau de Meursault in the quaint little town of Meursault in Burgundy, and it was the culmination of a traditional three-day celebration, known as Les Trois Glorieuses, that marks the end of another harvest and the secure feeling of knowing another vintage is safe in the cellars.

Each year, the celebration begins Saturday night with a black-tie dinner at Clos de Vougeot, an old monastery adjacent to the renowned walled vineyard, which I did not attend as both my dinner jackets were at the cleaners. Then on Sunday comes the famous Hospices de Beaune charity auction, where bidders from around the world try to acquire barrels of wine made from vineyard holdings that have been willed to the hospital over the centuries. I did poke my head in a few times; it’s an auction, all right.

Finally, on the third day, comes the lunch, La Paulée de Meursault, as it’s known. Originally it was for the winemakers, the cellar workers, and the community dependent on the harvest. Each winemaker would bring along a few choice bottles and, with music, dancing and speeches sounding the proper notes of civic pride, the lunch would become fittingly bacchanalian. Nowadays, a fair number of wine-loving tourists attend as well.

Some people may be familiar with La Paulée outside of its Meursault setting. Daniel Johnnes, the sommelier, has been holding annual Paulées in New York and occasionally San Francisco since 2000, modeled on the Meursault Paulée. Without the built-in community, the American Paulées have catered to high-end collectors. The atmosphere is a little cooler, though the air of expectation is just as great, and the wines they pour are significantly older and rarer.

For all the worldwide attention, La Paulée de Meursault maintains a warm, neighborly feel. From a stage in front of rows of narrow tables, the Mayor of Meursault makes a speech and a local male chorus, outfitted in cellar aprons, regales the crowd with folk songs, peppered with choruses of “Le Bon Bourguignon,’’ a popular drinking song. Dignitaries are introduced and, this being France, a literary award is given out. This year, the honoree was Régine Deforges, a novelist, and her prize, as usual, was 100 bottles of Meursault. Each year, the dubious honor of supplying the prize is rotating among Meursault producers, and Ms. Deforges was lucky enough to coincide with Domaine Roulot, one of the great white Burgundy producers.

From the moment you sit down, wine is poured. It’s great fun to see world-famous winemakers like Dominque Lafon of Comtes Lafon and Jean-François Coche of Domaine Coche-Dury walking around, filling glasses, and it’s even more fun if they fill your own. I was squeezed in among a crowd of Belgian tourists. Across the narrow table from me was Daniel Johnnes himself, who was singled out and celebrated by the mayor for bringing La Paulée to New York, and Philippe Ballot of Domaine Ballot-Millot et Fils, who was also the president of this year’s Paulée.

The lunch, beginning with foie gras and including scallops, veal, tournedos of beef, cheese and dessert, goes on for many pleasant hours, and the wine just keeps coming. As is so often the case in occasions like this the excess is almost embarrassing, as wines that you might cherish with an entire meal are dumped to make room for the next round. The bottles are flying. Meursault Charmes? Puligny? Did a Condrieu sneak in there? Who knows. You can’t always keep track of what was poured with a quick glance at one label while a second wine is being poured.

But it’s not hard to get into the spirit, and I must say more than a fair share of wine disappeared down my throat rather than into the dump bucket. Let me at least recall a few of the highlights: a 1997 Bâtard-Montrachet from Ramonet, courtesy of my neighbor from Belgium, intense, deep, focused and pure, with many years ahead of it; a fresh and minerally 2000 Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre and a clean, precise 1996 Roulot Meursault Perrières, and perfect to compare with Coche-Dury’s beautifully elegant and still young 1986 Perrières.

From Domaine Leflaive came a sleek 2000 Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet and 1990 Chevalier-Montrachet that was chock full of mineral flavors. The Leflaive winemaker, Pierre Morey, was pouring a magnum of his own 1982 Bâtard-Montrachet, and it was extraordinary. And then there were the Montrachets, including a pristine 2001 from Jacques Prieur and especially, a superb, stony, young 1998 Joseph Drouhin Marquis de Laguiche.

This was white Burgundy country, of course, and yet a few diehards can’t help but add some reds to the mix. Johnnes worked up a sweat working the room with a methuselah – eight bottles worth — of 2004 Charmes-Chambertin from Geantet-Pansiot, a delectable fruit bomb of a Burgundy. A 2000 Chambolle-Musigny les Amoureuses was graceful and delicious, while a 1962 Bonnes Mares – well, that’s enough already. I will only say that it’s awfully hard to swallow Bordeaux, no matter how good, in this company.

Yikes! All this talk about these great wines…..It is making me thirsty!
I find pleasure in both B’s. Come on, would it be torture to be “stuck” in Bordeaux having to force down that pluck Haut Brion or that crap Lafite???
I’m a glutton for that kind of punishment anytime!

Eric – I was at the auction, and in Burgundy for the next few days too. I cannot believe that after all the time I spend reading your blog and your column, that you would not take my wife and me with you to that lunch, or to taste the 05 Musigny at Roumier. I forgive you I guess, but its not easy. We ate instead at the street festival in Beaune – I had wonderful escargots and a glass of Aligote, artisanal sausages and cheeses, a crepe with chestnut puree, and a sandwich made with country ham and fresh butter. Delicious, but no famous winemakers were walking around pouring their wares.

I stayed in Beaune with the family of a winemaker during a visit in 2000. I fancy it as the beginning of my “real wine education”. We went out for pizza and ordered table wine, made small meals at home (which only once included wine) and frequently skipped dinner entirely. Is it possible that I went without so you could dump Grand Cru Bordeaux last week? Wine destiny? Who knows. I don’t let it bother me, so shouldn’t need to apologize.

At the very least our times in Burgundy explain why you’re blogging for NYT and I’m posting on retsina and what I affectionately call Châteauneuf-du-Pape Bowery. (And loving it.)

This is tantalizing me far too much for La Paulee de New York in March! But did the DRC served in Meursault match up to what has been (and will likely) be served in New York? Can’t wait to see you then! p.s. Anyone who wins any 100 bottles of Domaine Roulot is very very lucky. J’adore Jean-Marc.

As a neophyte wine-lover, I cannot comment, nor compare, the tempting wines about which you have written, with so much charm and intrigue, and an almost illicit love, that has created a desire in me to travel to France and visit the habitats you
have described with such elegance. It would be enchanting if I could experience this venue with a loved one who has introduced me to the pleasures and the virtues of wine, (our favorite varietal is Pinot Noir. I look forward to more of my favorite
articles………………..Bill